ASHLEY SMITH INQUEST BACK ON TRACK

At least that's what the title in today's Waterloo Region Record says namely : "Ashley Smith inquest appears on track". My first comment is oh yeah where do I get a government job that lets me adjourn on November the thirteenth for my Christmas and New Year's break. Seriously folks you had to adjourn yesterday until the new Year??? It's been more than five years since she died in custody.

The good news is that Correctional Service Canada and four psychiatrists now appear to be cooperating with the inquest. This is the fallacy of our so called judicial system. If you have the political power, muscle and public funds to back you up, you can sucessfully subvert the system for years on end. This by the way is not unintentional from the get go. Most of our laws, rules and regulations are designed with loopholes and escape routes for the powerful and wealthy. Afterall who do you think writes the legislation in the first place? It sure as hell isn't you or me and it's done by parties who are recipients of corporate and wealthy individuals' donations along the way.

If indeed it was the intervention of Prime Minister Harper or not, clearly since his comments things have been moving along better. It kind of makes you wonder if he'd bothered say five years ago, maybe this inquest would be finished and others currently incarcerated would be better treated as a result. The wealthy will never have any problem accessing legal representation or even private medical facilities for family members with mental health problems. The rest of us are stuck with the state's usual response which is to throw their butts in jail. A prime example would be the young man currently serving seventeen years in jail without parole for the unprovoked attack upon an elderly total stranger (Hunter Brown) a few years ago. With all due respect to Mr. Brown's family; can anyone seriously doubt that the murderer, without any apparent motive whatsoever, is extremely mentally ill? Maybe he can never be reintegrated into society. I don't know; but throwing him into jail rather than a mental health institution isn't going to help anyone.